And why wouldn't it be? The color has nothing to do with the safety of the panel, except maybe to make it a little harder to find it. The only time I have seen any which were NOT painted were when they were in unfinished basements.

Here, the houses MUST have a disconnect at the meter, and THAT is where the firemen would terminate the power if they wanted to do so, NOT inside a burning building. ANd the building woudl be so full of smoke that they could not tell what color the panel was. Why would anyone even consider painting the inside of the panel unless they intended to leave the door open all the time. Besides, the inside is where the breaker schedule is usually posted.

Painting of a panel cover is fine no matter where you live. Painting the inside of the panel is a no no every where.

Hanging a picture of some sort over a panel is just fine but hanging a picture on the inside of a panel is a big no no.

In the event of a fire most of the time the power is turned off by pulling the meter so this nonsense of a disconnect for the firemen is nothing sort of silly.

What would you do if my house was on fire and you needed to shut off the power?
Would you let my house burn while you looked around for a breaker to shut off or would you jerk the meter out of its socket?
A little common sense sure goes a long way for some of these questions instead of the nonsense that is posted for answers.
The fire department close to me carries a hot stick so they can disconnect the transformer if need be.

As a side not for those who don’t know. The spray head on a fire hose is designed so that the water droplets do not touch each other just in case the water is sprayed into a live circuit. Each fireman is trained in such matters and nothing we think changes these facts.

Edited to add this answer to an email I sent

Normally when we fight fires, we always de-energize the equipment and then extinguish with water. It's much safer. Otherwise, firefighters don't mess with electricity. We call in the power company to shut off the power and then go to work.

First of all, we don't pull meters. That's a dying practice and isn't even taught anymore. Around here we don't have outside disconnects. I'm not going to go searching for a panel in a large fire and its certainly not going to be a find the panel first then fight the fire kind of thing. I would absolutely shut off a breaker if I knew say that an AC unit was overheating but not if it was on fire and I have to protect exposures first. When somebody does get to the panel, we shut off the main, not the branches. That's an investigation thing. Usually if the the fire is big enough to warrant needing the power shut off, the utility is pretty good about getting out there quickly and diverting or switching the transformer.

As for the nozzle thing, you never fight a fire with a fog nozzle set to fog. Its a good way to get yourself steamed. The fog nozzle is good for hydraulic ventilation and mopping up but otherwise it stays pretty much set to straight all the time. We also use stacked tips which are straight streams of water too. The nozzles are not designed with spraying into live circuits in mind.

quote; Would you let my house burn while you looked around for a breaker to shut off or would you jerk the meter out of its socket?

Our disconnects are right at the meter, so you do not have to find something to cut the seal, then another tool to loosen the retainer band, which would take a LOT longer than opening the disconnect and tripping it. firemen's rubber boots are thick enough to isolate them from any grounding source. That must be a very SMART hose if it can keep ALL the droplets from making contact with each other, or else the droplets are not coming out very fast.